This is not our latest Sri Lanka Holiday Guru tip (“Travel with a paintbox instead of your smartphone!”) but the title of a book of delightful watercolours of an artist’s travels and exploration in Sri Lanka.
Travels With a Paintbox is the fruit of many years of travelling in Sri Lanka by British artist, Robert Sedgley. In this work of about two hundred watercolours and drawings, and with pencil notes recording his impressions and incidental observations, Sedgely tells the story of his journeys in Sri Lanka.
Starting in Colombo the book takes readers around the country in a series of ‘portraits’, region by region. Travelling down south to the remote standing Buddha statue at Maligawela, he takes in the Dutch heritage in Galle, the temples at Kataluwa and Tissamaharama and other sites along the way.
Then on to Kandy with its rich cultural history, with a double page spread of the annual Esala Perahera, before he proceeds to the Dambulla cave temples and Sigiriya, to the ancient cities of the Cultural Triangle, with their fine historic buildings excavated from the jungle; and religious works of art, such as the wall paintings of Tivanka temple and the extraordinary beautiful reclining Buddha at Gal Vihara.
At Anuradhapura the artist encounters the most sacred tree in Sri Lanka, Sri Maha Bodhi, reputed to be the oldest tree in the world; also here is the site of the earliest dagoba in Sri Lanka, the beautiful bell-shaped Thuperama, and the Jettavana Dagoba.
Some kilometres to the north of the ancient capital is a seated Buddha which, in the eyes of the artist, is the most peaceful and serene of ancient meditating Buddha statues, and which may have been seated in his tranquil forest abode for more than a millennia in a site, rarely visited by tourists and, still unknown to many Sri Lankans, the ruined Asokaramaya monastery.
In the hill country, there are sketches of vistas across the tea estates and its associated sites such as the gothic planter’s house at Adisham, now a Benedictine monastery (where the author recalls discussing French Post Impressionist art with the Abbot), Lipton’s Seat and the charm of the railway station at Haputale.
Concluding his artistic journey at Jaffna, with its Hindu temples and newly reopened fort, Sedgley recounts the story of the destruction by fire of Jaffna’s library and its rapid reconstruction in the same architectural style, alas without its hundreds of books and historic documents; and takes readers to another rarely visited site of the ancient small dagobas, at Kantharodai.
An informative text by Dr K. D. Paranavitana provides an introduction and historical and cultural backgrounds to the six sections of the book, and a gazetteer adds useful information on the most important buildings. With a foreword by the artist and writer, the late Ashley Halpé, this is not simply a beautifully illustrated memoir, it is also a work of scholarship, equally invaluable as a memento for tourists and Sri Lankans.
Robert Sedgley has been visiting Sri Lanka for more than twenty years. He has taught painting, sculpture and photography in the art departments of a number of comprehensive schools in England, and now lives in Spain, where he works in oil and watercolour as well as making ceramic sculpture.
His work is in private collections in Europe, America and Sri Lanka.
Illustrations from the book were recently exhibited at the Galle Literary Festival and the Lionel Wendt Art Centre, Colombo.
Travels With a Paintbox, is published by Sri Serendipity Publishing in Galle, and is available from The Galle Fort Art Gallery, Leyn Baan Street and local bookshops. It’s an inspiring, as well as novel guide to Sri Lanka as seen through a passionate artist’s eyes.
